I spent some time on a Model Power FP7A I picked up pretty cheap. Read all about it here: https://picasaweb.google.com/115166231832602451124/ModelPowerFP7A?feat=directlink Click on SLIDESHOW in the upper left.
A lot of nostalgic(?) engineering there. The fuel tank mounting would, I imagine, be difficult to conceal.
That's the old 1970's-1980's Arnold/Rapido style of mounting the trucks. My Arnold S2's are that way too. In some ways I don't find that method all that bad... the trucks are well secured by the pins... which could be easily removed to drop out the trucks. Have to agree that the ancient overall technology employed by Model Power for this 'new & improve' hobbyist version was typical of their 'new from the rails up' hype that only meant they used old technology in a new model. So it also has a skew wound three pole motor... I thought they had mentioned 5 pole motors for the hobbyist version. Well... what would I have expected... a seven pole coreless from them???... LOL It really doesn't run that bad for an old rehash of 1980's European engineering... and I'm sure that Ron's work will make it run more reliably. The funny thing is Ron... that the 'Beardenizing' was probably an accidental improvement that was intended to be a cost savings method to avoid having to mold a bearing block. Thanks for the great tutorial on the disassembly and points on how to improve the model. I have ONE Northern Pacific unit left... I traded away another one to a fellow modeler for some passenger cars and a couple of GATX hoppers. That's how unimpressed I was with it after I received my Intermountain FP7's.
Joe, The funny thing is, there is a slot for the in-board bearing. But since it is not needed, I'm thinking about 100% stripping this down to the bare frame and milling all the metal away from the inner bearing black mounts. The worm does not need to right on the metal in that spot since the long hexnut can be positioned to bottom out inside the flywheel and prevent lateral movement. This might make it run even better, with lower friction.
Perhaps not. The side skirts had several slots in them. The fuel tank mounting tab/slot is one, plus there are indentations on either side of it to simulate the others. Also, the side skirts (and the ladder stirrups) should be painted black. After that, the fuel tank mounting would, I imagine, be much less noticeable.
OR... just painting the tab the same color as the outside color of the skirted area should be really easy. Just make sure the paint is thoroughly dry before re-assembly... otherwise you might have difficulty removing the fuel tank when the paint bonds to the skirt slot!!:uhoh:
Since I was sandblasting my Milwaukee Road EP-2, I went ahead and did the FP7A as well. Got all the paint off. Cleaned and then primed. The roof section is white plastic- as is the nose door and the intake grills. The numberboards are translucent. I painted over them- (didn't care). Now to let it fully cure for a week or two.
Good grief. I can't believe this has sat in my closet for almost two years. Well, been back at work on it to get it finished up. Painted the gray last week. Today, painted the blue and the black. Still need to paint the grills silver. Then decals and clearcoat. Hope to have it done in the next week or so.
Thank you very much for your project photos. I have done one these some time back and tried stripping the paint with 91% alcohol, it took days but finally worked (for the most part ). Then painted it like any PLASTIC shell, there was my 1st mistake. My Milwaukee orange would not hold . Then came my 2nd mistake ,I thought I will try lacquer thinner so I dipped the whole shell in with out window,ect. It started attaching the dynamic brakes and fans plastic turned them soft and gooey. I sold it on the bay as junk project engine.
Whether the technology employed by Model Power is old or not is no concern to me. What is a concern is how the model operates and the two I have run just fine. I run mine as an AA lash up. These I rank with my Lifelike FA/B1's and my ER sharks as engines I always take to run at an Ntrak setup. The ability to pull long trains with out excessive heat build up and to operate slowly in the process for long periods of time make these engines Ntrak queens. One of my pet peeves is the coupling distance between engines (and cars as well). For engines I have gone to the old Unimate dummy coupler to couple engine units. I can't remember the last time I ever wanted to uncouple units that were thusly MU'ed together. The Unimates draw the units up nice and close. I employ the same on the FA/B1's and all my cowl units. Here is something odd. Back on July 5, 2016 I initiated a thread here on Trainboard entitled 'MRC-ModelPower Maybe Old News. In it I reported seeing on the MRC/Model Power website that Model Power was bringing out a new version of the FP7 with DCC and sound. Price was listed as $159.98 for the DCC+ sound version and $79.98 for the non DCC/sound version. I posted the URL as: http://www.modelrectifier.com/model-power/n-scale-Locomotives.asp?GetItemNo=50 So I tried to return to that URL and got a message saying "Page cannot be found". Apparently the website was taken down. Here is the Trainboard post and thread. http://www.trainboard.com/highball/index.php?threads/mrc-model-power-maybe-old-news.95904/ Interesting, Maybe a bit premature?
RGW1- Yikes! Many people may not realize that this is a METAL shell-- that has a lot of PLASTIC inserts for the details. So I see exactly how that caused you trouble. It is a good warning to everyone who wants to paint one. You have to be careful. When I sandblasted mine, that roughened up the metal so the primer would stick to the metal. But I had to be careful to not damage the plastic in the same process. Sorry about your loss.
Inkaneer. Yes I remember that. MP put a slot in the back of the chassis for a decoder and/or speaker. So it does look like they planned ahead.
I got it used so the price was good. My first hint that all was not well should have been the discoloration of the atlas jewel case that I used as a dunk tank for the shell, this also softened and stated to melt.
Here is the link to the N scale DCC with sound model: http://zckyo.xqfqa.servertrust.com/product-p/0689441.htm The site says "out of stock". So when were they in stock?
From what I remember, the WP version was never, ever "in stock". I've kept my eye out for any of the Model Power FP7s that I could get and repaint. I haven't seen one in the flesh.
